TV station apologizes to Julie Chen for telling her to fix ‘Asian eyes’

“Big Brother” host Julie Chen revealed this week on CBS’ “The Talk” that she underwent double-eyelid surgery to make her eyes look “less Asian,” at the behest of her former TV station, NBC affiliate WDTN in Dayton, Ohio.

Chen said an ex-boss told her she’d never get on the anchor desk looking that Chinese, that her eyes were “small” and “unexpressive.” An agent later told her the same thing, so she says she felt it necessary to oblige and surgically alter her face, to Westernize her look.

After all the media attention and public outcry, that Ohio station issued an apology, blaming old management. Better late than never.

“We are sorry to hear about what happened to CBS’ Julie Chen in 1995 when she was a reporter at WDTN-TV,” Joe Abouzeid, the station’s president and general manager, said in a prepared statement. “The station was under different management and ownership during that time. At WDTN and WBDT, we don’t tolerate racism or discrimination of any kind.”

Chen says her career post-surgery took off, so she’s conflicted about her decision. She wasn’t sure if going under the knife was “giving into ‘the man,’” she said on “The Talk” panel Wednesday in a special episode about “secrets revealed.”